Memphis / Alchimia: 1979-1990
El disseny italià dels anys 80 del segle XX va ser notable pel seu esperit innovador, experimental i sovint extravagant. Els artífexs d'aquest moviment renovador van ser Alessandro Mendini i Ettore Sottsass que van liderar dos grups de disseny d'una gran influència: Alchimia i Memphis.
Mendini va fundar Studio Alchimia l'any 1979 amb l'objectiu de superar les normes establertes per la tradició moderna. Alchimia cercava noves formes d'expressió incorporant elements artístics i conceptuals en les seves creacions. Un dels membres d'Alchimia va ser Ettore Sottsass qui al 1981 va fundar el seu propi grup anomenat Memphis.
Memphis va suposar una revolució en el món del disseny pel seu enfocament audaç i acolorit. Les seves obres es caracteritzen per l'experimentació amb materials, formes i colors poc convencionals així com per una actitud lúdica i provocadora. L'estètica Memphis ha esdevingut un símbol del disseny postmodern.
El diseño italiano de los años 80 del siglo XX fue notable por su espíritu innovador, experimental y a menudo extravagante. Los artífices de este movimiento renovador fueron Alessandro Mendini y Ettore Sottsass que lideraron dos grupos de diseño de una gran influencia: Alchimia y Memphis.
Mendini fundó Studio Alchimia en 1979 con el objetivo de superar las normas establecidas por la tradición moderna. Alchimia buscaba nuevas formas de expresión incorporando elementos artísticos y conceptuales en sus creaciones. Uno de los miembros de Alchimia fue Ettore Sottsass quien en 1981 fundó su propio grupo llamado Memphis.
Memphis supuso una revolución en el mundo del diseño por su enfoque audaz y colorido. Sus obras se caracterizan por la experimentación con materiales, formas y colores poco convencionales así como por una actitud lúdica y provocadora. La estética Memphis se ha convertido en un símbolo del diseño posmoderno.
“Political conviction, commercial imperatives, principles of form and function: all had been jettisoned. Even radicalism itself, the critical posture of the avant-garde, came to seem a distant memory. What was left? That was the question confronted by the two principal figures in Italian design in these years, Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottsass, Jr. It is almost too easy to juxtapose the pair as occupying oppositional roles: the intellectual pessimist and the sensual optimist. What’s more, each stood at the head of a group that reflected his persona. For Mendini, this was Studio Alchymia (or Alchimia). In 1978 he joined forces with Sottsass, Andrea Branzi, and the architect and designer Alessandro Guerriero, who had founded a showroom of that name two years previously. The aim of Alchymia was, as Mendini later wrote, to act ‘ambiguously outside the design itself, in a state of waste, of disciplinary, dimensional, and conceptual indifference.’ Sottsass founded Memphis in what his partner Barbara Radice described as ‘an act of friendly secession’ from this nihilistic worldview (...) The formation of Memphis in 1981 announced a more positive, forward-looking, and perhaps commercial phase of Radical Design (...) Despite the differences in rhetoric, they drew from a common palette of materials, colours and compositional techniques. Though Alchymia was strongly identified with the concept of banality, Memphis also employed materials that could be seen as kitsch, notably plastic laminates. And there was considerable overlap in personnel: Sottsass contributed to Alchymia, and Mendini to Memphis, while Branzi and Michele De Lucchi were involved in both projects. In certain respects, Memphis was an extension of strategies first explored under the Alchymia umbrella.”
Glenn Adamson, Jane Pavitt (eds.) Postmodernism: style and subversion, 1970-1990. London: V&A Publishing, 2011 (p. 40)
